In these years, in accordance with the miniaturization of electronic equipments, there is a growing demand for electronic parts such as a semiconductor device that can realize miniaturization and high-density packaging. In response to this demand for higher density, it is required to mount both analog and digital circuits together, or devices having high clock frequency together. In these cases, noise is known to generate among the closely located devices due to electromagnetic waves.
In order to shield a semiconductor device or module that is susceptible to electromagnetic waves from a semiconductor device or module that considerably generates electromagnetic waves, a whole semiconductor device or module is generally covered with a metal cap called a shielding cap, etc.
As an example of this kind of semiconductor device, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 256412/1998 (Tokukaihei 10-256412; published on Sep. 25, 1998) proposes a semiconductor device having a structure as shown in FIG. 19, together with its manufacturing method.
As shown in FIG. 19, the above semiconductor device is arranged as follows. A semiconductor device main body 110 is so arranged that a semiconductor chip (semiconductor element) 102 is mounted on a rectangular wiring substrate 101, and a protruded external connecting terminal 103 is provided on a back face of the wiring substrate 101. Then, the semiconductor device main body 110 is covered with a shielding cap 121 having a rectangular parallelepiped shape with an open bottom face so that top and side faces of the semiconductor device main body 110 are covered, and the shielding cap 121 is adhered to the semiconductor device main body 110 with an adhesive agent 122.
On a front side of the semiconductor chip 102, an element circuit (not shown) is formed. The semiconductor chip 102 is mounted on the wiring substrate 101 either using an upset so as to be electrically connected to the wiring substrate 101 by a bonding wire 104, or using a downset by a flip chip connecting method. The mounted semiconductor chip 102 is covered with sealing resin 105.
The material of the shielding cap 121 is a gold-plated or tin-plated metal such as copper, or nickel silver. The dimensions of a storing section of the shielding cap 121 in a horizontal direction is a little larger than the size of the wiring substrate 101 so as to fully cover the semiconductor device main body 110. Further, inside the side faces of the shielding cap 121 is provided with a pressed protrusion 123 for fixing the wiring substrate 101.
A method for manufacturing the above-described semiconductor device will be explained as follows. After the semiconductor device main body 110 is formed, the adhesive agent 122 is thickly put on the sealing resin 105 on the semiconductor device main body 110 using a dispense nozzle (not shown); the shielding cap 121 attached by attaching conveying means (not shown) is put on from above and pushed into a fixed position; and then curing treatment is applied.
However, the conventional semiconductor device and the conventional method for manufacturing the semiconductor element have the following problems.                (A) The whole semiconductor device becomes very large, because the semiconductor device main body 110 larger than the chip size is further covered with the shielding cap 121.        (B) It is required to prepare the shielding cap 121 variously in accordance with the semiconductor device main bodies 110 in different sizes.        (C) The application is limited to an area array such as a BGA (Ball Grid Array).        (D) The assembling steps become complicated, because, after the semiconductor device main body 110 is assembled, each semiconductor device main body 110 has to undergo the steps of dispensing the adhesive agent 122, covering with the shielding cap 121 that is press-molded and subjected to plating, etc., and curing the adhesive agent 122.        (E) It is difficult to shield a back face (external connecting terminal side) of the semiconductor device.        